Storm rips through Huron County

Winds of up 63 mph overnight toppled trees and power lines, leaving at least 50,000 homes without power throughout Ohio Wednesday morning.

Most of the outages were in the central and northeast parts of the state.

Some schools delayed or canceled classes because of outages or because streets and sidewalks were littered with fallen trees and power lines.

In Huron County, numerous residents reported downed trees and lines, but no serious injuries have been reported. However, local police agencies and the sheriff’s office were still receiving calls as residents awoke this morning and surveyed the damage. Various areas of the county lost electricity during the night. It was not yet known how many residences were effected, and how many still were without power as of 9:15 a.m. The Reflector will update this story as more information becomes available this morning.

The storm was worst in some areas of the region.

Wind damage to rooftops was reported in Pickaway County, south of Columbus, and a parked semi was blown onto its side while the driver was inside sleeping.

A high wind warning remained in effect until noon Wednesday in northeast Ohio, including the Cleveland, Canton and Youngstown areas. Gusts of up to 63 mph were recorded overnight at Cleveland Hopkins airport, said National Weather Service meteorologist Dan Leins in Cleveland.

In southwest Ohio, trees were reported down in Hamilton County, Butler, Warren and Clermont counties.

“It was probably a good trainer for us because in about three months we’ll get into that spring mode,” Clermont County dispatch Dave Chaney said. “It kind of felt like springtime here in January.”